Chapter 5: The Cup He Took

Xiao Jue woke to sunlight on the ceiling, and for a long moment he did not know what it meant.

The window was bright.

The brazier had burned to ash.

Somewhere far off a bell was ringing the end of the noon hour.

The bell was wrong, because he had not heard the dawn drum.

He sat up so fast that his head swam.

"Gao Shun."

The old eunuch was in the doorway before the name had finished.

"Majesty," said the old eunuch.

"What hour is it?"

"The hour of the horse, Majesty. A little past."

"The great court sits at dawn," said Xiao Jue.

"It did sit, Majesty." Gao Shun's voice was very small.

"Three hundred ministers waited two hours in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The Prime Minister told them that Your Majesty was ill."

Xiao Jue closed his eyes.

In nine years he had not missed a court.

He had gone to every one on three hours of nothing, with his hands shaking inside his sleeves, and been terrible, and been obeyed.

He opened his eyes, and Su Ming was sitting in the chair by the window with a book in his lap.

He was fully dressed in grey, with his hair tied back, and there were shadows under his eyes.

"I told Gao Shun not to wake you," said Su Ming. "It was my order. If you want someone punished, it should be me."

"You gave an order in my chamber."

"Yes," said Su Ming.

"For what reason?"

"You were asleep," said Su Ming. "I thought it was an emergency."

Xiao Jue looked at him.

The man was thin, pale, and sat with a straight back, and his face was mild.

His hands lay open on the book, steady.

They had been steady the night before, too.

They had also been the last thing he saw, folded around a cup, before the dark took him.

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